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Why did CNN distort Clinton's comment on human rights?
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Reporters at Clinton's press conference in China.
In case you haven't seen the quotes, here they are again. When it quoted Hillary Clinton on human rights, CNN excised her words from a longer quote that Reuters ran in full. CNN deployed the partial, stitched-together quote out of context to assert that the new U.S. Secretary of State cares more about economy, climate change, and security than she does about human rights.
CNN: "Human rights cannot interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises."
Reuters: "Now, that doesn't mean that questions of Taiwan, Tibet, human rights, the whole range of challenges that we often engage on with the Chinese, are not part of the agenda. But we pretty much know what they are going to say. We have to continue to press them but our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises. We have to have a dialog that leads to an understanding and cooperation on each of those."
When you read the quote in context, it becomes clear that Clinton was not saying, as CNN asserted, that "the world economic and other crises are more pressing and immediate priorities." Rather, she was saying, as Reuters put it, that "The United States will press China on human rights but this will not keep them from working together on the financial crisis, climate change and North Korea."
The difference in reporting is trivial only if you consider the economic and climate crises trivial, only if you think it's no big deal that North Korea has nuclear weapons. Because while it's crucial that Chinese and Tibetan people enjoy basic freedom and security, it's also crucial that we work with China on the economy, the environment, and peace. China holds $700 billion in U.S. Treasury bills—an amount almost as large as the economic stimulus package President Obama signed this month. Should we refuse to talk to them about the economy? Climate scientists believe China surpassed the U.S. as the world's leading producer of greenhouse gases in 2007 and that China's contribution to global warming is increasing ten times faster than ours. How can we stop China from roasting the planet if we refuse to talk to them about the environment?
We may be defining the phrase "human rights" too narrowly. When Clinton talks to the Chinese about the economy she's talking to the Chinese about human sustenance across the globe. When she talks to the Chinese about the environment and nuclear security, she's talking to them about human existence and the existence of many other species.
Unfortunately, when she talks about anything, some reporters feel free to take liberties with what she says. Like Tom Cruise, like Britney Spears, Hillary Clinton has achieved a version of celebrity that eclipses her right to have her statements reproduced faithfully, and in context, by the press. It also eclipses our right to have them delivered faithfully and in context. That's not the way the press should operate, but ever since Hillary Clinton said she's not going to stand by her man like a little woman in a Tammy Wynette song, ever since she made it clear she's not going to stay home and bake cookies, some reporters have listened to her words not for their meaning, but only for their temperature. And with Clinton heading the State Department, she won't be the only one shortchanged.
CNN's hatchet reporting makes for good headlines, strong page views, angry activists, and discussions that echo around the globe--but it makes it harder for us to save and create jobs, stop global warming, and live in peace.
News Analysis by Jeff McMahon
UPDATE: CNN has now edited the story to restore some of the words they omitted from the quotation. However, they haven't changed the distorted summary of the quote that serves as their lede paragraph. The CNN article is unsigned.
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